The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1887-09-03
A Thrilling Adventure.

! "What was the closest place you
were ever in, in your frontier exper-
ience?" was the conumdrum fired
by a Chronical reporter at Capt. Jack
Crawford. "The Poet Scout" The
scout ran his fingers through his
long black hair, reflected a few
moments and replied:
"Well, I'll tell you, but you mustn't
give it away in print. 1t occurred
about year ago, when Geronimo
was on the waT path with his muir
derous Apaches. l was out door
hunting near a range of mountains
west of my home, and about noon
unsaddled my horse on a mesa, or
piece of high table land, and after
picketing the animal out in the grass
sat down to eat some cold lunch
from my saddle pocket. After
finishing the lunch l concluded to
let the horse Craze for awhile and
leisurely strolled out on a long arm
of the mesa, the sides of which were
very precipitous-a sort of perpen-
dicular wall extending for fully 5OO
feet to the plain below.
81 stood there gazing from the
giddy height for several minutes,
and then looked up. Imagine the
uneasy feeling which crept along my
spine when l saw row of at least
thirty painted savages between me
and my horse. There | was utterly
unable to defend myself, my rife
and my pistols back with my saddle
great precipice on three sides of
me, and that band of Indians in
front. TO jump over the cliff would
be certain death; to rush upon the
Indians unarmed and single-handed
as certain in result, and if l remain
ed where stood it would be mat
ter of few moments before they
would advance and kill me.
81 never was worse scared in my
life. My blood seemed to freeze in
my veins, and my long hair stood up
like a ships masts. To me it SEEM
ed there was absolutely no escape
from sure and terrible death. OBJ
served that the Indians were hold
ing discussion among themselves,
and soon saw them drawing lots.
at once OWNED their purposes. They
had discovered that / was entirely
unarmed, and were drawing lots to
see which one should advance and
despatch me with a knife. The lot
fell to a stalwart warrior with a
hideously painted face and with
long knife in his hand he advanced
toward me.
"If ever man made good time in
realing off prayer did it just then.
think must have beaten the
record by several points. 1 thought
l knew that must die, but Just
when was about to give up in de-
spair cold calmness came over me,
and | resolved that the fiend should
not murder me without struggle.
When he got near me l sprang
upon him with the ferocity of a
tiger, and we were soon engaged in
desperate hand-to-hand struggle.
The savage band stood quitely en-
joying the sport, for they knew l
had no weapon. During the strug-
BILE l observed to my horror that we
were nearing the edge of the cliff,
and almost before 1 could realize it
the savage grasped me by my long
hair, bent me backward, and over
we went, down, down to certain
death on the rocks below"
And you fell on top of the Indian,
and escaped"
"No; the Indian fell on top of me,
with fingers still locked in my hair,
and over and over we rolled, clear
across the room"
THE room?"
"Yes, the bedroom. You see. il
was an ugly dream, and in my des-
peration l had grabbed my wife.
and she retaliated by entwining her
fingers in my hair. In our desper-
ate struggle we rolled out of bed.
and after we awoke my wife held ON
with her deathlikc grip until l had
explained. Then we both laughed
until the echoes stirred up the whole
Rio Grand Valley, forgave each
other, and went back to bed. That
was the most desperate fight in
which L ever took hand, but / have
l. q.